5,000 riders were hit by overbilling on CTA card

More than 5,000 Chicago Card Plus holders who used the stored-value card on Pace were billed for rides they took more than a year ago and for which they already had paid, a CTA spokeswoman said.

The figures released Tuesday show the scope of the overbilling first discovered Monday after dozens of Chicago Card Plus holders complained to the CTA that they had been overcharged for using the card on the Pace suburban bus system.

The CTA's probe discovered that "a little more than 5,000 customers" were billed for trips they took between October 2004 and February 2005, CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney said. She expects the charges to be reversed in a few days.

The problem did not affect people who used the cards to ride only on the CTA.

The overbilling occurred after Cubic Transportation Systems, which processes Chicago Card data, was pulling information for Pace. The information was mistakenly transmitted to the vendor in charge of billing Chicago Card Plus holders, Gaffney said.

"It wasn't transmitted as duplicate data," Gaffney said. "So the company that did the billing just went and charged the accounts again for trips for which they had already paid."

The CTA is working with Cubic to determine how the incident occurred and to ensure it doesn't happen again, Gaffney said. A Cubic spokeswoman confirmed that the company is looking into the issue.

Pace asked Cubic to pull the data as part of its ongoing study of the use of the CTA's seven-day pass on its system. Pace agreed to accept the pass in 2004 after the Regional Transportation Authority said it would give the suburban agency up to $2 million to cover the cost. The idea was to make it easier for people to transfer between the CTA and Pace.

But Pace has seen the use of Chicago Cards and the pass soar on its system since Jan. 1, when the CTA raised cash fares to $2 and eliminated cash transfers. People with a Chicago Card or seven-day pass still pay $1.75 to ride the CTA and can transfer for 25 cents.

While Pace is reimbursed for each ride it provides Chicago Card holders, there is a $2 million cap on the reimbursement for those who use the seven-day pass. Pace Executive Director T.J. Ross told the board this month that the $2 million the RTA gives Pace to accept the pass could run out as early as May.